Foundations

LCT builds on past knowledge. It integrates insights from the approaches of Basil Bernstein, Pierre Bourdieu, systemic functional linguistics, Karl Popper, critical realism and many others, including taking inspiration from Foucault, the Frankfurt School, Ernest Gellner and Mary Douglas. These papers address some of those foundations.

This is an introduction to a collection of key papers in the broad set of approaches known as ‘social realism’. It provides the basic background to social realism, its implications for education and social justice, and a brief history of the emergence of this fresh approach to knowledge. It includes chapters by: Maton; Moore & Young; Moore & Muller; Beck; Wheelahan; Young & Muller; and Moore.

On social realism, see also Rob Moore (2009) Towards the Sociology of Truth, London: Continuum.

PIERRE BOURDIEU

The ways in which LCT extends, integrates and subsumes Bourdieu's field theory has yet to be extensively discussed. Nonetheless, the following give some indications.